It was his first day of school and already he’d been sent to the office. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong so why was he sitting in the hard, wooden chair outside of the headmaster's office. Only a couple minutes ago he had been outside by the lake waiting for Megan…

“Mr. Town, the headmaster will see you now.” sighed the secretary, interrupting his train of thought.

He stood up and walked toward the looming oak doorway and as he crossed the threshold he was overcome with the horrible smell of sulfur. The smell seemed to coat the room, it practically oozed out of the floorboards and the cracks in the walls, it was overpoweringly strong.

“Take a seat young man,” ordered a scratchy voice that must have been the headmaster’s,” do you know why you are here?”

“No,” James replied, fidgeting,” Why?”

“Well, your sister is, how should I phrase this, Missing,” The headmaster sneered,” We have of course alerted the authorities but it might be a long time till they get anywhere…”

The rest of the conversation was a blur, and he was still trying to process it as he walked down the main stairs, Megan. His older sister. The same sister who had taken care of him since she was four when their mother had walked out, the same sister who had worked like a dog to get a scholarship to this school, the same sister who had begged him to go anywhere but here. He hadn’t understood then, understand the horror house this place was.

He was so deep in this inner monologue that he didn’t notice the girl coming up the stairs, nor the boy going down the stairs ahead of him, not even the textbook that some careless student had left on the stairs.